De Profundis and Other Prison Writings (Penguin Classics) by Oscar Wilde

by Oscar Wilde

This collection contains, too, many examples of that humorous and epigrammatic genius which captured the London theatre and, by suddenly casting light from an unexpected angle, widened the bounds of truth.

Genres: Classics, Nonfiction, Essays, Poetry, Literature, Memoir, Philosophy

Unknown Binding

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb work of prose, this autobiographical essay in epistolary form is also--although Wilde would never call it so--an unconventional moral exhortation and an impressionistic work of Christology.

This letter from prison written to Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas--Wilde's young lover and the occasion of his downfall--urges the young lord to face up to his own reckless past behavior and to seek the knowledge of self that can only be gained through suffering. "Shallowness is the only sin." Wilde repeats again and again. "Whatever is realized is right." What Wilde calls "a failure of the imagination" is the moral evil that afflicts Bosie, and it is only by a necessarily painful growth in self-awareness that this young man can become a fully human, completely realized work of art.

Some of the most interesting passages here are Wilde's exploration of the nature of Christ. Wilde considers Him the true founder of the Romantic movement, the first authentic individualist, a man who saw each person as unique and who revealed to humankind the profound truth that we must grow through suffering into love.

[Alina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Wilde‘s epistolary essay De Profundis changed me on a fundamental level... in a good way I think.

“The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered: those who know what beauty is, and those who know what sorrow is: nobody else interests me.”
- Oscar Wilde

[Tracey Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the letter to a lover that you always mean to write, but don't. it's perfect and amazing, and the next time someone dumps you, rejects you, or just doesn't feel "that way" about you, you should read this and try and find a way to turn your festering inferiority complex into a work of pure genius.

[Emre Dahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ekstremt bittersweet å lese ferdig favoritt forfatteren sin. Jeg tar denne anledningen til å skrive mine tanker om denne mannen.

Det finnes tilfeller der en persons “ikon” overlever, og overskygger handlingene deres. Alle vet hvem Marilyn Monroe er, ingen har sett en Marilyn Monroe film. Jeg tror dessverre at Oscar Wilde lider av dette. De fleste har hørt om Oscar Wilde, og at han var (dun dun dun)… gay. Hans plass i vårt zeitgeist har blitt redusert til en anekdote av hvor forferdelig lgbtq folk ble behandla før i tiden. Jeg er 100% sikker når jeg skriver dette, han hadde hatet å bli husket på denne måten. Wilde var først og fremst, en kunstner. Alt annet var uviktig. Så gjør meg, deg selv, og Oscar Wilde en tjeneste og les kunsten hans. Han fortjener å bli lovpriset, ikke synes synd på.

Han blir ofte kalt «lord of language», en tittel han 100% fortjener. Ingen noensinne har kontrollert et språk som Wilde. En av de tingene som jeg husker fra LIT2000 er hvor utilstrekkelig språk er for å utrykke individuelle oppfatninger. Uten å gå i super mye detaljer, følelser er personlige, ord er generaliserende. Litt trist hvis man tenker på det, at man er en fange for språket. Oscar Wilde var faen ikke en fange. Å lese verkene til andre forfattere etter å ha lest Oscar Wilde er som å se på aper som prøver, men ikke helt forstår hvordan man skal bruke en hammer. Vi kjører i en toyota, han flyr i et romskip. Du kan ikke sammenligne.

Jeg ville skrive en lang rant om hvordan kunst er på vei til å dø, AI, KAPITALISME, osv, men jeg skal spare dere. Alt jeg skal si er, les Oscar Wilde. Les bøkene hans, stykkene, essayene, alt. (Det er ikke så mye). Verden trenger en Wilde renessanse, og jeg trenger noen å snakke om Oscar Wilde med.

Boka er ekstremt bra også, forresten.

[Sladjana Kovacevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

DE PROFUNDIS/ THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL & OTHER WRITINGS-OSCAR WILDE
📓Zbirka sadrži tri eseja,pismo i baladu i razumem potrebu izdavača da stavi De Profundis u naslov i na prvo mesto u delu,ali predlažem da se čita hronološki kako je pisano. Tako sam ja čitala i tako vam i predstavljam. Redom to je 3,4,5,1,2
📚THE DECAY OF LYING
✒️"He created life,he did not copy it "
📣Ovaj citat se odnosi na Balzaka.
📣Laganje iz naslova podvlači Vajldov stav da umetnost nije samo prosta reprodukcija realnosti,već da je "laž" odnosno mašta ono što umetnost čini umetnošću.
📣Pritom,odaje priznanje Dostojevskom i Šekspiru koji su od svakog naizgled banalnog događaja stvarali umetnička dela i,naravno,Balzaku jer je "čitam XIX vek u Francuskoj Balzakova tvorevina"
📚THE CRITIC AS ARTIST(dijaloški esej iz 2 dela)
✒️"The highest criticism,then,is more,is more creative than creation"
🥁U prvom delu se iznosi teorija da je u antočkoj Grčkoj dosegnut savršeni oblik kritike jer su svi diskutovali o svemu,na trgovima.
🥁U drugom delu,Oskar Vajld iznosi svoje shvatanje da kritika treba da bude lični doživljaj dela a ne puko prepričavanje. Aktuelno i danas po Instagramima,ako smem da primetim 😁
📚THE SOUL OF MAN UNDER SOCIALISM
✒️"The form of governement that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all."
❗️Kao što se vidi iz citata,Vajld je više anarhista nego socijalista. Zalaže se za to da se država ne meša u umetnost i da se radi na razvijanju individualizma,da svaki čovek može svoje talente da ispolji. 👏👏👏
📚DE PROFUNDIS
✒️"Gods are strange. It is not of our vices they make instruments to scourge us. They bring us to ruin through what in us is good,gentle,humane,loving."
💔Nakon eseja pisanih prilično neutralnim tonom,imamo buru osećanja. Zato je dobro ovo čitati na kraju.
💔De Profundis je pismo Oskara Vajlda lordu Alfredu Daglasu,zbog koga je završio u zatvoru. 💔Ima bola,ima pouke,ali i pored svega nema gorčine u Oskaru,i uvek zadržava nadu da i tako upropašćen život može da se uzdigne i da ima svrhu.
💔Sudeći prema izjavama savremenika(ovde se ne navode ali predlažem Autobiografiju Andre Žida-Ako zrno ne umre i dela ostalih savremenika)—ono sve za šta Vajld optužuje Daglasa nije ni deseti deo kakav je Daglas zaista bio.
🔗Poslednje hronološki a drugo u zbirci je The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Reading Gaol je zatvor u kome je Oskar Vajld izdržavao kaznu a balada opisuje stvarni događaj-pogubljenje ubice.

[Andrew H · Rating 4 out of 5]

De Profundis was devoured (uncritically) as a teenager and as a student. Reading it now, it appears as a beautifully written yet very strange work. This long wail out of the depths was written (allegedly) to correct the vanity of Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar's beloved Bosie. Wilde is quick to assert that De Profundis has one purpose, to sweeten bitterness and explain the error of Bosie's ways to Bosie. Yet, on leaving prison, Wilde handed the work to Robbie Ross, Bosie's nemesis, and the work was never shown to the wild panther. The denunciations only became clear when Lord Alfred Douglas saw quotations from De Profundis many years later and decided to sue for libel; only to discover that the quotations were true. The idea of sweetening bitterness is taken from Isaiah 5:2o and also refers back to Wilde and Catholic Ireland where the Virgin Mary is remembered as the Sea of Sorrow. As Wilde claims at one point, "the supreme vice is shallowness." And shallowness is the opposite of what was proclaimed at the temple of Delphi: know thyself. The learned language of De Profundis establishes that Wilde was not shallow and therefore (as a Greek spirit) free from the supreme vice. If anything, De Profundis is a re-imaging of Christian iconography in which the focus is Wilde's martyrdom. The audience for Wilde, as ever, was Wilde.

[Drew Canole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first foray into the non-fiction writings of Oscar Wilde. I loved it. He's a fantastic writer.

-The Soul of a Man Under Socialism-
Essay - Wilde is not an economist or really a political writer. This however, was less about socialism and more a compelling argument for individualism. He states that the advantage of socialism would be its ability to use machines (now only benefiting the private capital owners) to reduce menial labour for all of us. Giving people the ability to live meaningful lives and develop their free spirit. Currently, solving the problem of poverty by simply keeping the poor alive - or merely amusing them - is not good enough.

-The Decay of Lying-
Presented as a dialogue between nature-loving Cyril and art-loving Vivian - we get to see Wilde argue that writers need to get better at fabricating reality. Better at lying. Instead of copying nature, art needs to transcend and be better than nature. Let nature copy art. I recall David Mamet stating something like, I don't want my cowboy characters to sound like a cowboy. I want cowboys to see my movie and start talking like my characters. Wilde concludes "Lying, the telling a beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of art".

-De Profundis-
The meat of this book is this lengthy 100+ page letter Wilde wrote to his ex-friend (ex-lover?) Alfred Douglas. Douglas was essentially responsible for Wilde getting thrown in jail, as Douglas's father publicized Wilde's free-loving ways. This prompted Wilde to sue for defamation, which backfired - since the allegations were proven true. Wilde could have fled to France (where being gay had been legal since the Revolution), but was urged by Douglas to stay. The history behind the letter is fascinating. Nearly as fascinating as the letter itself. I almost feel bad for Alfred Douglas - to have his legacy be this 100 page epic letter where Wilde just tears him apart.

-Poems-
Fine poems, pretty light-weight

-The Ballad of Reading Gaol-
I believe this is Wilde's final work? An epic poem about the prison. Fantastic.

[Joseph Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

People have a beautiful habit of writing down words on pages which they bind together in a thing called a book. This is the best one ever written.

[Emma Arnold]

Wilde was like: “I was imprisoned just for being friends with a man.”

Meanwhile, Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, was like “I probably need to start addressing the fact that Wilde was an older predator who slept with 16 year old boys. That way, no one would suspect that I am homosexual myself.”

And Wilde was like, "But I am literally a genius, look!"

And it feels like this book is trying to show that the situation was more complicated than it seems by publishing Wilde’s writings on socialism and class, along with De Profundis, whose introduction was written by his own son.

It seems to want us to overlook the fact that Wilde was not charged solely for homosexuality but also for sleeping with young working-class boys. But is this book trying to defend Wilde by arguing that the trial targeted his exploitation of young working-class boys while ignoring the fact that the entire system is built on exploiting the working class as a whole?

Because look! Wilde was a socialist! He had feelings!

Tbh I really enjoyed that part about Christ:D Christ served bfe, ze proste hrozne pripominal Ninu M. den po vyplate

[Shiloh · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There is no prison in any world into which love cannot force an entrance."

Perhaps I was a little bit cruel with Wilde when I read Dorian Gray. De Profundis is most definitely a masterpiece of a letter. You've ruined me and it's all my fault. You have a great deal to learn of sorrow.

[a random hopeless romantic · Rating 4 out of 5]

i selfishly think about what else he could've written if he wasn't imprisoned at least once a week.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small book of selected works shows the depths of both Wilde's thought and his suffering, all expressed in effortlessly fluent language.

I came to this book by way of the Wikipedia entry on Wilde, which I consulted after reading his The Picture of Dorian Gray. I was most intrigued to learn that he had written a long, searching letter while in prison, and was eager to read it. What were the thoughts and feelings of this perceptive man, who had undergone such a severe reversal of fortune?

I was to learn those things, but, being the kind of reader I am, I started this collection of works at the beginning, with Wilde's 1891 essay, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." Knowing nothing much about Oscar Wilde, I didn't know that he had written about socialism, and was most surprised to discover that he looked forward to the arrival of socialist society as bringing a great advance in individual liberty and personal fulfillment. He regarded the mundane tasks of economic life as dehumanizing, and therefore they were appropriately to be taken on by the state, that its citizens might then enjoy more leisure, which is a prerequisite for civilized life. And how would the state be able to keep its citizens on a living dole? That is, who would be doing all that dehumanizing work? His answer was simple and prescient: machines. The right person to do dehumanizing work is a nonhuman. In this, Wilde was anticipating such thinkers as Adler and Kelso, who also, in their 1958 book The Capitalist Manifesto, advocate a society whose citizens have been emancipated from toil. They see capitalism, not socialism, as the pathway to that emancipation, but then they enjoy the advantage of having witnessed the sobering reality of the 20th century's various attempts to create a socialist utopia. Wilde gives the impression of regarding the details of wealth-creation as too tedious to occupy the minds of anyone but bureaucrats; Adler and Kelso perceive the danger of concentrating all economic as well as political power in the hands of just a few men. The key point is that Wilde saw the central importance of these issues for society, although he was writing almost 70 years before those later thinkers.

Wilde's central concern is that people should lead lives of dignity and fulfillment. They should be themselves. I have no doubt he would have agreed thoroughly with another thinker whose ideas he anticipates: Abraham Maslow, who stressed the importance of self-actualization, the final and highest of human needs. For Wilde, the type of the self-actualized person is the artist, whose calling is exactly to express who he is. Wilde was the originator of an artistic mini-movement known as Aestheticism, which was concerned with turning one's own life into a work of art. He thought that a socialist society, more than any other type of society, could be one in which people would have the greatest opportunity to live in this (to his mind) fulfilling way.

I was impressed with the range and depth of Wilde's thought as I read this essay. He was a thinker who addressed the Great Ideas, who had original and perceptive contributions to make to what the Great Books people call the Great Conversation of Western civilization. He writes with a kind of effortless, detached passion. He is famous for his epigrams, especially the witty ones ("the good ended happily and the bad ended unhappily--that is what fiction means"; "if this is the way Queen Victoria treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any"), and one sees how his style of thought and writing lead naturally, so to speak, to their formation. They arise where perceptiveness, brevity, and irony join in the mind of one who has a command of language. His prose, indeed, reads almost like a series of epigrams, and sometimes I found myself wishing for more of the train of thought that led to these sharp summary statements. But there is no denying his power and vigor as both a thinker and a writer.

Skipping the dialogue called "The Decay of Lying," I moved on to the main course, "De Profundis," a title bestowed by Wilde's ex-lover Robert Ross on the long letter composed by Wilde to another ex-lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, from Reading Gaol where Wilde was immured. It is a letter of complaint about how his relationship with Douglas had led to Wilde's ruin. Written, under prison rules, a single page at a time, it is a testament to Wilde's powers of organization and retention, as well as to his fluency, for apparently corrections to the manuscript were few. But the contents do not reflect well on either man. For while Wilde succeeds in portraying Douglas as the worst kind of parasite, narcissist, and ingrate, he also inadvertently reveals himself to be a patsy and a fool. Based on Wilde's description of his behavior, I had little doubt that today the young Lord Douglas would be diagnosed with the narcissistic personality disorder or something like it, while Wilde himself would probably be diagnosed with the codependent personality disorder. Wilde's letter is a long and, one realizes, futile effort to awaken some sense of contrition in Douglas for the many wrongs he did to his lover. Like Charlie Brown, who never learns that Lucy is going to yank the football away yet again before he can kick it, Wilde never learns that must expect only humiliation, not gratitude or reciprocation, from his young friend. What is sad is that even by the end of his letter he has not learned this; disgrace, bankruptcy, and incarceration have not been enough to drive home the message.

At the end of the book is a collection of 11 short poems and the longer "Ballad of Reading Gaol," a somber and knowing account of prisoners' reactions when one of their number goes to the gallows. Although I'm not a connoisseur of verse, I enjoyed this very much.

In all, this book is a collection of provocative and well-written pieces by a complex and brilliant man. Oscar Wilde was a true artist by his own definition of that term: "a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself."

[janna ✭ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Oscar Wilde sososo much, truly one of my favourite authors (even my favourite authors are libras, I truly can't escape).

"De Profundis" is by far the best thing in here, though I also really liked "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." "The Decay of Lying," the poems, and "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" are fine, though not his best work imo.

I don't think people give Wilde enough credit for how funny he is, I laughed multiple times while reading this...Anyways, if you liked The Picture of Dorian Gray, consider reading this (or any of Wilde's plays) because he really is one of the best.

Individual ratings:
- The Soul of Man Under Socialism: 4/5
- The Decay of Lying: 3/5
- De Profundis: 5/5
- Poems: 3/5
- The Ballad of Reading Gaol: 3/5

[astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm somewhat flitting between giving this a four or a five-star rating, so although I've currently settled on the former, note that this is subject to change. If I were exclusively assigning the stars to the main work in this group of writings, De Profundis, there would be no doubt in my mind about giving it the highest possible, despite knowledge of context displaying the blatantly obvious story of Wilde's lack of adherence to the principles and moral self-discovery detailed. It's both remarkably frustrating and saddening to read with that broader knowledge of how the infamous author spent his days (and little money derived predominantly from allowances) post-incarceration, involving, as I'm aware, alcoholism, MORE male prostitution, and a return to his former lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, who was shunned so deeply in De Profundis, seemingly at the agony of Wilde. Despite it being relatively short-lived due to threats from both Constance and Douglas' family to completely cut off funds resulting in the two being penniless, the affair has the same symbolic resonance. Bosie, allegedly the source (or catalyst) for the majority of Wilde's legal, artistic, emotional, and monetary problems, was what the latter returned to in his desperate state in Naples, not Robert Ross, who was loyal, forgiving, and kind to him until his demise; this all leads me to believe that in many ways, Wilde's descent, as an artist and fulfilled, content human, was largely self-induced. For me, this is incredibly tragic, although unsurprising. I suppose that all the hope for the future suggested in his remarkably long, fluent, and profound letter amounted to effectively nothing, and the retreat from hedonism and self-destruction was only ever facilitated by a depleted source of money, not a spiritual awakening or connection to his idea of God. I'm sure it was all a coping mechanism, but it makes me hopelessly miserable nonetheless. Of course, the writing was gorgeous, even with the feeling of intrusion into an evidently highly intimate insight into Wilde's thoughts, feelings, and experiences. If you're already interested in Oscar Wilde and want to feel emotional, I'd definitely recommend, but if you're not prepared for prolonged ranting about Lord Alfred Douglas, talk of Catholicism and self-realisation, and considerable, if inexplicably justified, moping, perhaps you should momentarily re-think and psych yourself up.
As for the other essays and poetry, they were all relatively good - in terms of non-fiction, I enjoyed 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism' most, with its main theme being that capitalism restricts artists and that we should contrarily pursue socialism, allowing menial labour tasks to be completed by machinery and artistic and intellectual tasks to be indulged in by humans as they enjoy life. The majority of the poetry was, in my extremely humble opinion, not particularly remarkable or notably worth the read, but 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' was, from my perspective, very successful in conveying its point and with a superb rhythm in light of its subject that I certainly appreciated.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The supreme vice is shallowness. Whatever is realised is right.”

This collection contains three prose works and a selection of Wilde’s poetry. The title piece, “De Profundis,” is a long letter Wilde wrote to his (ex?) friend/lover Lord Alfred Douglas (“Bosie”) during his imprisonment for “gross indecency.” An account of their relationship and its ending in which Wilde accuses Douglas of being shallow and uncaring and himself for allowing Douglas to consume so much of his time and money, it also contains Wilde’s reflections on themes that run through the other prose works: art (for Art’s sake), individualism (Emerson looms large, implicitly and explicitly, in these works), and society (Wilde does not think much of popular opinion).

In “The Soul of Man under Socialism,” Wilde presents his vision of socialism as the ultimate form of individualism: eliminate private property, the condition that creates poverty, and we will all be free to cultivate our genius as artists. Wilde’s socialism is rooted less in a sense of solidarity with or outrage at the conditions of the working classes than a sense that efforts to alleviate poverty are a burden on the cultural elite. In “The Decay of Lying,” a critical dialogue, Wilde is similarly dismissive of popular taste and social realism in the arts: art should not, contra Hamlet, hold up a mirror to nature; rather, life mirrors art, and art ought to be beautiful by being disinterested. Yet the major work of poetry here is “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” in which Wilde takes as his subject what most directly affects him – the experience of men condemned to prison.

I bought this volume some ten years ago at Borders (r.i.p.) and have held on to it through several moves, but only just got around to reading it. I’ve felt differently about Wilde at different times. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is still a comedic masterpiece; “The Picture of Dorian Gray” seemed a frightening, grotesque tale when I read it in high school, but Lord Henry’s witticisms became an intolerable annoyance when I reread it in college, which put me off of Wilde for a bit. There are less decadent masquerades here: “Behind joy and laughter there may be a temperament, coarse, hard and callous. But behind sorrow there is always sorrow. Pain, unlike pleasure, wears no mask.” “If one cannot enjoy a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all,” says one of the speakers in “The Decay of Lying.” I enjoyed reading this book once, and given infinite time, I suppose I would enjoy reading it again. I’ve also been holding on to Ellmann’s biography, and perhaps I'll finally plunge into that soon, as it occurs to me that while I’ve always know about Wilde’s ignominious end, I never really knew any of the details.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mainly wanted to just read De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, so I have put off reading the other two essays for the time being. I did read the other poems.

De Profundis is a letter unlike any other - full of anguish and bitterness, at least in the first half. His feelings towards Bosie are hard to interpret. Does he hate him or does he still love him? I got the impression, especially after the initial section where he faces Bosie with his part in Wilde's incarceration, that his feelings will always remain. There is a section about God which I skimmed over, then the letter concludes with a much more measured approach to Wilde's time in prison and what he sees as his future when he is released. It is all very traumatic, and through this work alone it is easy to understand why he means so much to so many gay men.

The Ballad Of Reading Gaol is a similarly emotive piece about a convict who is waiting to be executed, and the feelings of his fellow inmates.

As with all great writers I found myself on the lookout for the lines that are familiar, to be able to put them into the context in which they were written. There are several in this book, but it is the following which I did not know that spoke to me most, and made me wonder how he could conjure this up after all he had endured, and while still in prison:

'With freedom, flowers, books, and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?'

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

"She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole."

I fell in love with Oscar Wilde after reading The Picture of Dorian Gray in college. He represented eloquence, cynicism, indivisualism, the search for pleasure and eternal youth. I saw in him a figure that took pleasure in disrupting societal norms. Reading his letter from prison seemed to me like it was written by someone else, which shows how deep and sincere his metamorphosis has been. His experience is an amazing journey of self-discovery, love, a sensual life, feasts, and then prison and loss; utter loss. His reflections on sorrow, agnosticism, Christ, morality, art, sympathy and society are still relevant to this day. Although I may not agree with every part of his perspective, I can't help but look at it with wonder. He was able to find beauty in the darkest places and made a holy ground out of his prison cell. Oscar Wilde is a fine sculptor of language and reading his books is like stepping into a museam of fine words of art.

[madeleine ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“love is able to read the writing on the remotest star”

the pain, the passion and the pure creativity that wilde poured into this beautiful break-up letter to his former lover(?) is unmatched

i loved the rawness in which wilde wrote this and how we see the complexity of love-
“when suddenly, unbidden, unwelcome, and under circumstances fatal to my happiness, you returned”
to then
“If bitter necessity, or prudence, to me more bitter still, had prevented my being near you, and robbed me of the joy of your presence, though seen through iron bars and in a shape of shame, I would have written to you in season and out of season in the hope that some mere phrase, some single word, some broken echo even, of love might reach you.”

the intensity of these words made me feel truly heartbroken and i was on the verge of tears numerous times throughout this letter. this hits you hard. wilde also dips into philosophy in some parts which i also thoroughly enjoyed!

i did however get lost in the pages about jesus but a masterpiece nonetheless!!

“And if I then am not ashamed of my punishment, as I hope not to be, I shall be able to think, and walk, and live with freedom”

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" is pure genius. Rarely are politics and poetry so beautifully entwined, yet Wilde presents them as inherently so. Two jewels that shone particularly bright in the lattice:

"...the past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are."

"...a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime."

"The Decay of Lying" is classic Wilde philosophy, albeit Decadence ironically spoken by two characters named after his own sons. It is best read when one is in a Decadent mood.

"De Profundis" struck me as potentially interesting for those concerned with the political implications that enshrouded Wilde personally, but having already seen the biopic Wilde, it merely read to me like notes for the screenplay. "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" manifests a more concise, impressive intersection of his jarring personal experience with his poetic gift.

[Marina Sinđelić · Rating 3 out of 5]

De profundis

The first part is a real treat for gossipers, the second one, a treat for a sufferer. (The first one listing the trouble Wilde's friend Adolf had put him through, and the second one filled with forgiveness, chagrin, even Christian philosophy). After arrogant, ironic style in The Picture of Dorian Gray, quoted to express cynicism all over the web (facebook particularly), the painful, demure, and even submissive tone in De Profundis came as a huge surprise. Wilde is broken and ready to forgive, and what's more, although he denies the crime he was accused of, finds it fair that he is in jail, since he had led a luxurious, sinful, cynic life. Although he talks of Jesus as someone who prefers sinners as the closest thing to perfection, his repenting for his previous life definitely veers to Christianity, and as we hear, he forgives his friend, and doesn't mind poverty, awaiting the month of May to get out of his cell and spend his days, be they his last even, reading good books that need to be read.

[Monty Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Introduction cautions that Wilde’s treatment of Lord Alfred Douglas is frequently unfair and often factually inaccurate. Well, maybe, but taken with everything else I’ve read about Bosie, I can’t conceive that he was anything other than an utter shit. Wilde may have been the author of his own misfortune, and there is quite a lot of self pity here, but De Profundis itself is such a powerful and unusual piece of writing, with so many curious layers of feeling and colour, that I can forgive Wilde a great deal. I was reminded of the statue of him in Merrion Square in Dublin, which does such a wonderful job of expressing Wilde’s multi layered ambiguity in the different types of coloured stone used, and in the uncertainties both of his facial expression and the direction of his gaze.

[Less_cunning · Rating 5 out of 5]

"De Profundis" is probably the greatest break-up letter i've ever read. "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" makes a credible case for Socialism but also levels a scathing critique of Journalism & debates the ethics of Artistic Integrity. His poems are both honest & illuminating. Where Wilde's other work displays his wit & nature as a high aesthe, "De Profundis And Other Writings" shows not only Wilde's range but that he was a man of great substance and talent.

I wish i had of read this work sooner.

[Dennis Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stating Wilde's brilliance seems sort of redundant, so I will steer clear of that for now.

I consider De Profundis to be his most heartfelt work ever. It's Wilde's 50,000+ word letter to his lover from prison (and, if you didn't know, the major reason why he was convicted of homosexuality was due to said gay lover). It's the most meaningful thing Wilde ever wrote in his life, and it shines through.

This is a MUST READ for any and all Wilde fans.

[Ksenia Francesca Leanza · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say, he writes beautifully and this letter to his lover was painful because of all the things he put him through, leading till his imprisonment.
I resonate with how Wilde sees the world and wish to reassure him :(

(But honey there was a lot of repetition and circling around the same issues, rather than a letter it felt like a LOOOOONG essay. I wonder if the lover *cough* toxic ex *cough* read all of it, considering his superficial character, as described by Wilde himself)

[Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The heart of a broken man: rarely as a writer shown his own heart in such a naked, raw, intense way. What can be described as a love letter is actually one of the most admirable and heartbreaking descent into the human psyche and the meaning of love. An achievement like no other.

[Joseph Raffetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Profundis is a letter he a wrote from jail. Extremely powerful and spiritual.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

as read in order…

poems ⭐️
the ballad of Reading Gaol ⭐️ (sorry oscar but your poems suck)
de profundis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
the decay of lying ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
the soul of a man under socialism ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Kendall McClain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again having a hard time rating a collection of works. De Profundis, The Soul of Man under Socialism, and The Decay of Lying are great. Especially De Profundis- gives you the drama and the introspection. I feel like I get Oscar Wilde a lot more after that one.

Whereas, The Ballad of Reading Gaol and The Critic as Artist did not necessarily pique my interests. The thesis of The Critic was proved almost immediately for me and the further analysis just felt repetitive.

Love Mr. Wilde though, and I especially love his incessant need to reference Shakespeare. He’s just like me fr.

[Sophie Naylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

absolutely loved “the soul of man under socialism” and “the decay of lying”. “de profundis” was really good for the first half but i could definitely tell i was reading a letter that was intended for a specific person and i didn’t have the knowledge of their history to fully understand it. and i still don’t like poetry so the last section was a miss for me 💔 but “the ballad of reading gaol” was good!

[Maria Theodoor · Rating 3 out of 5]

In these letters, passages consisting of complaints are alternated with surprisingly beautiful observations and contemplations of life, forgiveness, religion, and the meaning of love. The first fifty pages or so dragged a bit, but the remainder was very profound and entertaining.